Introducing Dory

Note: There is one extra complimentary ticket to the Main Grandstand of A1 GP World Cup of Motor Sports Malaysia at Sepang F1 Circuit this Saturday and Sunday (24 and 25 November). Courtesy of Steven Penguin-5.
If you are inteterested to go, please contact yours truly (KC) at 012- 266 8166.
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“I would like to join you in the trekking trip to Pine Tree Trail in Fraser’s Hill. I will drive and come with a few friends.” When I read the email, my first reaction was that it would be quite a distance for her to go to Fraser’s Hill. She works in Penang as an Engineer.

The original trekking date, however, clashed with Jackie Cheung’s concert on 14 September 2007. I postponed the trip. But with the new date, she was not able to join.

Please click here to visit Lie Wei’s (or Dory) weblog.
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Lie Wei with partially covered Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco

Alternatively, click the link (Dory - Wish upon a Star) at the left sidebar of this weblog.

She is an active person. She said: “I think anything to do with outdoor will be of my interest, but I especially love activities that burn calories and can keep body healthy, i.e. trekking, jogging, cycling, sightseeing, swimming, traveling, diving, etc. Hmmm… that is a long list of activities.”

She is now posted to the United States of America on work assignment and at the same time, holidaying. “I will be in US until a few days before Chinese New Year. I'm in California, so the places that I have visited are only in the state of California. So far, I've covered Hearst Castle in San Simeon, Kings Canyon National Park, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco and San Diego Sea World. I am planning to visit Las Vegas in thanksgiving. Too bad that when I am here, it is nearing winter. If not, I might be able to go for a rim-to-rim trekking in Grand Canyon, going from North Rim to the South Rim. I heard that it is very challenging. However, the North Rim is closed during winter because of the extreme cold weather.”
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Besides outdoor activities, here are her hobbies: “I collect stamps too. I like photography, though I am no pro photographer: not knowing deep about adjusting shutter speed, aperture, exposure and all but I like to take photos. And I don't own a RM3,000 dSLR camera. I cannot afford it yet, maybe in a few years’ time. I have some life long target that I would like to achieve: I wan to learn piano, travel the world. Am I too ambitious? Haha...”
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Recently, after she had read the posting on “blind-man trekking stick” in KC&SR weblog, she emailed Steven P5 (from US) to deliver a trekking stick to her father as a gift for her father’s birthday. She is truly a thoughtful daughter. Her father is active in trekking too.
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P.S. It is the thanksgiving holiday there. She will be having a long weekend off (4 days). She will be heading to Las Vegas. She hopes that that the traffic is not too congested. Otherwise, time will be wasted getting stuck in the traffic jam.

Posted by KC

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A1 GP Motor Sports @ Sepang

Last Saturday 17 November 2007, I followed my friend Shukri to Sepang F1 Circuit to watch the trial run of motorcycles for next season in 2008.

I am pleased to introduce a few of the photos taken by him on the previous car racing events.

Please click here to view photos. To have a glimpse of him, please scroll down to two preceding postings.

BTW, both of us will be going to Sepang F1 Circuit again this Saturday and Sunday (24 and 25 November) to watch the A1 GP World Cup of Motor Sports Malaysia. The first race on both days will start at 8:45 a.m. and end at 4:00 p.m. So, we will go there early and spend the whole of two days there.

If you are interested to come along, please contact yours truly (KC) at 012- 266 8166. Meantime, Steven Penguin-5 is trying to get complimentary tickets to the Main Grandstand.

If you are not running full marathon in Singapore International Marathon (SIM) on next Sunday, it is an excellent idea to relax yourself at the Sepang F1 Circuit. After all, you have been training hard for the “Marathon of the Year End”. Or if you are running full marathon in SIM, it is also an excellent idea to charge you up and get used to the roar of the crowd or the machine.

Please click here for the official website.

The blurred effect of the multi-coloured sand pit looks like the colourful orbit of Jupiter.
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Gosh… there is even fire at the exhaust pipe. How could there be fire at the tail pipe? For our cars, that is bad news that burns a much bigger hole in our pockets.

Two Sport GT cars are keenly contesting for top position
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Pay attention to the wheels: The photos are taken with the wheels are still spinning and not total freezing of motion. This is done by slowing the shutter speed of camera. However, it is a difficult skill as the whole photo might be blurred too.


Posted by KC

Final Long Run for SIM 2007

Lisa

Please click here to view 86 photos (in larger frames) by courtesy of Weng.

Weng went for a Sunday morning long run from Bukit Aman car park to Sri Hartama on 18 November 2007. That will be the final long run before most runners would taper their mileage in preparing for Singapore International Marathon on 2 Dec 2007. As usual, he will be running in the full marathon category.
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Ang CK

A vibrant smile on a peaceful Sunday morning

In that training run, he brought along his new digital prosuma camera. Prosuma camera is a little higher end than compact but below the dSLR range. He was doing a trial run with his camera on the Sports mode in taking runners in action. Luckily, he did – the focusing was not razor sharp.
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From the photos, I could see that there were many runners running that morning. I presume most were dutifully doing their final long run, or just running to maintain fitness and good health.
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It has been almost one year that I have not run from Bukit Aman car park to Sri Hartamas. From the photos, there were new developments. Even the trees are having much more leaves.
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Dr. Lyou

Posted by KC

MotorGP 2008

Written by KC
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Please click here to view 66 photos taken by yours truly (KC).

It takes a lot of guts and having the nerves of steel to ride a motorbike on a racing track. When negotiating corners, the motorcycle was slanting at steep angle, and the knee of the rider almost touching the ground. With a little more incline to the ground, spark would flare due to friction with the road.
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Don’t get me wrong. I am not advancing from Duathlon (riding road racing bicycle) to motorcycle Grand Prix. And I am not the rider of this motorcycle racing on the track. I am merely holding the camera taking this photo at the Sepang F1 Circuit on 17 November 2007.

On that Saturday afternoon, I followed my friend Shukri, an avid photographer and an avid fan of motor sports, to Sepang F1 Circuit to witness the trial run of 2008 motoGP (Motorcycle Grand Prix). He is very familiar with the venue as he has been there many times. He never missed the yearly Formula 1 car racing events!

Shukri's camera and lens: Equipped with a 300 mm lens attached to his Nikon dSLR, the unit looked like a bazooka.

The weather was superb that day with an overcast sky and not raining as in other days.

That day was my first time putting my footsteps at Sepang F1 Circuit. Though The Circuit has staged many world-class events, I was always watching the live coverage on TV as I could not get the ‘kaki’ to go together.

The roar of the machine is deafening

While we were walking toward the Mall Area of the Main Grandstand, I could hear the roar of the engine. The sound was deafening but exhilarating to acknowledge. It was as though a few aircraft were taking off at the Sepang F1 Circuit. We walked slowly from the entrance to the other end of the Main Grandstand, which is 900 meters apart.

Constructor

At that moment, only two motorcycles were racing on the track. A few minutes later, we could see another motorcycle in blue was been ridden out of the Constructor Box. Shukri could even tell me from the colour and the sound of the engine. That was really pro. He could tell me which one was Honda, Yamaha or Kawasaki. As for Honda, there was one model of 2007 and another newer model for 2008. An interesting point to note was that though the sound was loud, the motorbikes were of 800 cc only. Most of the constructors or mechanics were either Japanese or Orang Putih.
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Taking Photo

It was really challenging to take photos of fast moving subject. Used to taking runners and Duathletes in action – which are much slower – the motorcycle there was much, much faster.

At the straight stretch adjacent to the grand stand, the motorcycles were speeding at a blistering speed. Facing a straight road, we have to start aiming at the motorcycle when it was arriving at 2 o’clock direction. We must click the shutter button when it reached 1 o’clock direction. Once passed, it was just not able to frame the subject.

Turning

Negotiating sharp corner at fast speed was most difficult and required a lot of precision skill. From maximum speed, brake was applied when going into the turn. That was the time the engine gave a louder VROOM. The riders actually leaned their body almost parallel with the road to negotiate the bend seamlessly and effortlessly. Once the motorcycle has completed the bend, it was time for full throttle ahead. We could hear that each shifting of gear was done in less than two seconds. And within seconds, the motorcycle has sped off.

Out of the usual speeding and turning action, to our big surprise, one rider lost control while negotiating a not-too-sharp turning. He was seen flunk out of the motorcycle and both the rider and the motorcycle were landed on the sand pit. Immediately, the workers rush to his rescue.

Next Race

It was really exciting watching the racing live. I actually missed the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix 19-21 October 2007, a month ago. The next racing event is the A1 GP World Cup of Motor Sports Malaysia on 23-25 November 2007, which starts from this Friday. Click here for the website.

Shukri

Yours truly (KC)

Posted by KC

The Aspiring Marathon Runner

Written by MMR

Last last long run of 32 km on Saturday 10 November 2007: I was kinda hoping for rain this morning as my lazy bone streak was mounting its ugly head – 32 km Woh! Who would not be protesting even just thinking about it? But nope, the skies were cloudy but not a single drop of rain fell from the skies so off I went to the gardens.

The "Power" of group support – my regular friends and kakis were all running that morning so that was enough to kick start the long run. After a while, my kakis of different pace either started to overtake me or fall behind but I know that they were never too far away. I readily gulped my sports drink and snack at the appropriate intervals which gave me much needed energy.
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The gardens were quite quiet today – perhaps the threat of the impending rains had put some of the regulars off. I have planned to chalk up about 30 km (if I could!) as a final preparation for the Singapore marathon on 2 December.

After the 20 km mark, I was feeling good and this was a boost as I recalled some 8 weeks before that it was at this stage that I was beginning to feel fatigued and questioned my sanity as to what the heck I was doing.

Several kilometers later, I met a group of German tourists who seemed amused that I was (by this time) running alone and at a time when many had left (around 11 am) the gardens. They gave me the thumbs up and this further boosted my morale as my body was beginning to feel the heat, both from the sun and from the many miles of running.
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At around 34 km, another couple who regularly exercise also gave me the thumbs up and asked me how long I had been running that morning. I finally finished the run at around 35.5 km with the thought that I could still go on and I was still feeling good and strong. This has brought me much confidence that I can and will complete the Singapore marathon.

P.S. Tuesday 13th November 2007 With only 18 days to SIM, I am cautious with food and physical well-being. Whenever I see someone coughing, I literally run away as I am very worried to catch their germs… :-) But cautious as I am, me being the klutz that I am tripped on my own trousers when the tip of my (right) high heeled shoe caught the inside of my left pants and BANG! I fell down the stairs. Thankfully I suffered only a sharp hard knock on the knees that delivered a sharp acute pain and a little sprained ankle. Lesson of the day- ONLY wear running shoes and throw away the high heels!!

Written by MMR

Note by KC: Glad to hear that you clocked in 35.5km for your final long run. That was very impressive for a maiden record. You did the right thing to stop at 35.5km even though you can go further. Otherwise, you are running a few marathons (even in your training runs) before your maiden marathon. BRAVO to our aspiring marathon runner MMR!
. I hope the fall did not cause much hurt to you. Not only that you have to be cautious on food, you have to be conscious of the environment, sleep early, (much like a purist), you also have to walk slower a bit. After all the training runs, we could be feeling very light and walk swiftly. Be careful of the glass panel (with non-glare type) and don't walk right into it… just like what I did last time. And they said I was looking at leng lui … :-)

As to the gender of the writer, MMR has given the clue. Found it?
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Fears and Jitters

Written by MMR

The e-bulletin/webpage from the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon ("SIM") subtly has a countdown column on the right hand side corner and it reads “22 days x hours x mins x secs” to the Singapore marathon…… 22 more days! Yikes…

Nothing like a countdown to jolt one’s senses up on a cool Saturday afternoon. Earlier on, I was debating with myself whether or not to go for the long today or tomorrow since I was a little tired from an outstation trip for the past 2 days; also it looked like rain soon. .

Upon reading the countdown, my heart suddenly leapt and began to thump very very fast and I could feel my adrenalin was pumping. In fact the countdown “warning” worked so well that I immediately wanted to abandon everything I was doing and lace up my running shoes and run straight out into my long run – and that was all at 12 noon!

Ok – debate over, I have to run my long run on Saturday afternoon, come rain or shine. At 4pm, I eagerly dashed out of the door and into the gardens. The looming dark clouds only made my heart beat faster as I really wanted to run and prayed that the rains would be held back by an invisible shield. I started to run really quickly as if my mind and body wanted to “out-run” the impending rain.

The rains did arrive but thankfully only after 2 hours from the time I started and it rained mildly and I was thankful for my cap which has seen me through the strongest sun’s rays and the heaviest of rains. After 2.5 hours, I decided to call it a day as the rain got heavier and this was not a time to get sick from the rain. I was also a little exhausted not from the run but from all the rushing around from my out-of-town trip.

What matters now is not the training but the big day on Sunday 2 December 2007 - SIM. Even though my heart was beating really fast after reading the e-bulletin, my mind was still thinking sensibly. I guess that is how a marathoner should be, eager and excited but not abandon all good sense; the important thing is to start the race and then finish the race well.

Will schedule another final long run.

See you at the starting line.

Written by MMR (Maiden Marathon Runner)

Posted by KC

Genting Trailblazer 2007 - Part 3

Please click here to view 60 photos by courtesy of Hon You. The photos are taken by his friend while he ran the race.

The theme of this final posting on Genting Trailblazer 2007 (or Awana Trailblazer) is "Before and After". Before the race, as you can see, the participants were looking cool, composed and confident. Yes, they were smiling, and the shoes and socks were sparkling clean!

Standard Chartered Team: Gary Lee, Li Yun; Hong Chiang, Irene Lim

Yes, looking smooth and clean

Weng and wife; Rustam and daughter

(L-R) Lee Chi An and Hon You (the young photographer)

After Effect

It was such a great fun participating in this great event though the participants looked muddy. If not because of 4 or 5 events clashing on the same Sunday morning, I belive the turn-up would be double. Let us hope that Genting Trailblazer 2008 is back again -- and not clashing with any other events. See you next year.

Posted by KC

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Next: SIM training report from MMR

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